Techmen Want to Rechristen Their Harvard Bridge; Cambridge Solon Wonders if M.I.T. Is Here to Stay

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
October 29, 1946

Struggling to get out of the long shadow of their brothers' ivied towers up the river, the men of M.I.T. have launched a campaign to rechristen the Harvard Bridge after Technology.

With their institution flanking the Charles on both banks, Techmen hold it unreasonable that in their daily routine they should be forced to turn to 'Harvard' for support. Editorial bombast in "The Tech," downstream undergraduate weekly, threatens to carry the issue to the cities of Cambridge and Boston and thence, if need be, to the legislature.

Said Michael J. Sullivan, councilman and counsellor to the good people of Cambridge, "I understand Harvard has been here quite a while--over 300 years in fact. Technology people are still children in Cambridge. We'll wait till they grow up."

Wellspring of the clean-up-M.I.T. campaign lay in a fall indoctrination course designed to imbue freshmen with Tech tradition. The fledglings filled the air with frantic hisses at the mention of staid old Harvard bridge by Charles E. Locke, a professor emeritus.

Editor Claude W. Brenner of "The Tech" picked up the cry saying "There seems to be no good reason why this noble edifice should be named in honor of that aggregation of red-brick buildings (he means Harvard) up the river, particularly when that worthy institution is so far removed from the structure in question."

As an afterthought, Brenner's editorial adds. "At any rate, they have innumerable bridges in their vicinity which could more understandably bear that honorable name."

Petitions have found their way to the slide rulers' bulletin boards where 1,500 students and staff have already fixed their signatures in angry protest. Impetus was also received this week when the advisory board of publications went on record against the outrage that has dogged Technology throughout its 30 year history on this side of the river.

Ernest I. Sly, venerable broom pusher over the Massachusetts Avenue cobbles, was heard to mutter that perhaps the honor of having the bridge named after alma mater might encourage Techmen to keep it clean. "Five minutes a day will keep the cobbles clean," he remarked sagely.